It’s difficult to imagine that the old Gunther Brewery Co. building once was the biggest blight on the Brewers Hill skyline.

In fact, the Gunther building and the 30 acres around it were so blighted when Obrecht Properties LLC began redeveloping it 15 years ago, the company began building office space first because it couldn’t convince anyone to live there.

But now the 300,000-square-foot, 160-unit apartment building, set for completion this week, is sure to become the undisputed gem of Obrecht’s redevelopment of Brewers Hill (click on the slideshow above to see more photos).

And even in a town where redevelopment of old office and industrial properties has become a big trend, the Gunther is likely to stand out for one simple reason: There is nowhere else you can live in Baltimore that used to produce 800,000 barrels of beer every year.

Rents start at $1,390 for a studio and run as high as $2,500 for a two-bedroom.

Thirty-three people have already moved into the old Gunther plant, a place where residents can walk past four-story-high beer tanks along exposed brick corridors. Developer Wells Obrecht said the building is attracting urbanites who love the idea of walking to the Target across the street in Canton Crossing or the neighborhood’s vibrant nightlife offerings.

But with 110 of the 160 apartments constructed inside the original plant — the other 50 are in a newly constructed structure built atop a new parking garage — it’s the historic feel of the building that helps renters take the plunge.

“There is certainly a draw to living in a historic building and especially a draw living in a brewery building — it’s kind of like living near the water,” Obrecht said. “Thinking about the old ghosts of the 600 brewery workers who used to go to work there — that really draws people in.”

The residents will join people living in the 440 units completed at Hanover Brewer’s Hill, completed in 2012.

Obrecht started acquiring properties for what’s now a 30-acre parcel about 15 years ago, and began the redevelopment with an office and self-storage complex now known as the Natty Boh Tower.

A lack of windows in that building ruled out residential construction, but at the Gunther, where windows were plentiful, Obrecht said residential units made sense.

Starting out, the building presented a huge challenge in assessing the size of the building for general contractor Kinsley Construction Co. Massive beer tanks blocked workers from even measuring the floor sizes accurately at first.

“We had one hand tied behind us going in,” Obrecht said. “The geometry of the building was very complex.”

Portions of the building were built before prohibition laws were passed, then Gunther Brewing added on to the building after the law was repealed.

Because Obrecht pursued historic tax credits, one of the biggest hurdles was matching construction materials to different periods and creating unique floor plans for 110 apartments to fit each space correctly.

“We had 17 types of brick and we spent several months just trying to match the brick to make it historically accurate,” Obrecht said. “Trying to replicate the seven or eight different types of construction periods was very hard. It wasn’t like it was all built in 1910 and we had to match all of that.”

Now the patience has paid off and Obrecht is marketing the building as a place “with a distinctly unstuffy vibe.”

There is a new 10,000-square-foot restaurant complete with outdoor seating under construction as part of the building. Obrecht is also touting amenities such as a 2,500-square-foot gym, two theaters and a terrace for tenants to grill outdoors in nice weather.

In the next several months, Obrecht plans to place the old Gunther logo on top of the building in neon lights, similar to the winking “Mr. Boh” logo atop the Natty Boh Tower nearby.

But the baseball caps Obrecht has produced to mark the building’s openings might say it best of all. Thirty-six years after the building produced the last can of beer, the hat reads: “Gunther is Back.”